The Madras High Court on Wednesday continued its stay on a floor test in the Tamil Nadu Assembly after hearing a hearing a petition challenging the Tamil Nadu Speaker’s decision last month to disqualify 18 legislators of the ruling AIADMK loyal to VK Sasikala, who has been evicted by the party as its chief.

The HC clarified that the interim order against conducting elections to their constituencies and also a restraint on conducting trust vote in the Assembly shall continue until further orders.

Meanwhile, M Natarajan, husband of Sasikala, now jailed in Bengaluru for corruption, on Wednesday underwent a surgery clouded in controversy for transplant of liver and kidney.

Critics alleged that the organs for Wednesday’s surgery were harvested from N Karthick, a labourer who was shifted in an air ambulance from the Government Hospital in Thanjavur allegedly against medical advice.

In the meantime, Sasikala, whose parole application was on Tuesday rejected by the prisons department officials of Karnataka on technical grounds, has reportedly filed a fresh plea seeking leave.